Newcastle’s Willow by the Sea makes $2m from baby and mum skincare range

Corina and her husband had $100,000 ready to buy a forever home, but decided to have a ‘crack’ at a business idea that has now brought millions.

When Corina Ryan was pregnant with her first child, she was browsing organic skincare products but was shocked to find what was inside them.

She wanted a “pure” product but all she could find were creams and oils with “chemicals, toxins or fillers”.

“I was reading all the labels and just found it really weird that you would see words like organic or natural written on the front of a product, but in actual fact it was filled with chemicals,” she told news.com.au.

“Every mum wants the best for their baby and I couldn’t understand why products couldn’t be made with simple pure ingredients and marketed honestly and authentically.”

So the mum-of-two turned to the kitchen to make her own organic skincare brand, influenced by memories of visiting her grandma in Romania, who was a herbalist.

“I still remember when I was a child, my grandma used to take me into the Romanian countryside fields to harvest plants, like chamomile and calendula, then we’d come home and she’d show me in her books everything that we’ve seen and what benefits came from them,” she explained.

“It was a great bonding experience for us and I felt special always being around her in the kitchen. Her passion really resonated with me and drove my interest in how pure botanicals can be so beneficial to the human body.”

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There are 12 products in the Willow by the Sea range. Picture: Supplied

Her husband Luke said they experimented in the kitchen to make the products with natural ingredients and without water, which he said is a mainstay of skincare products because it dilutes ingredients and makes them cheaper.

The couple then came up with the name Willow by the Sea for their new business venture, in a nod to their first daughter who had sent them on the skincare journey.

Luke, who previously worked for Netflix in New York and advertising agencies, was all over the branding.

The 40-year-old said he wanted to get away from the “boring” greens and browns that seemed to dominate the packaging of the baby and mum skincare space. Instead he went for a beach theme for Willow by the Sea, which they initially tested out at a local market in Newcastle and sold out on the day.

That’s when the couple knew they had to go all in with the $100,000 they had in savings.

“We had to decide do we seriously have a crack at being entrepreneurs as it was a deposit for a house pretty much and go all in on a brand that we believed in, versus taking the safe route?” Luke said.

“If I look in hindsight I can’t believe we did that, but now it’s the smartest decision we ever made. We are doing it. We can’t live by doing the same thing day in and day out and in 20 years complain we should have had a go.”

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While doubling in size, the business’ operations remain local with everything manufactured in small batches from their Newcastle base. Picture: Supplied

The gamble certainly paid off with the couple set to make $2 million this financial year alone. Since launching in September 2018 they have raked in $3.5 million, with 1000 orders leaving the warehouse a week. The brand is also stocked in 300 retailers.

The range includes five products for babies including a bottom balm, oil, two bath teas and a balm, which range in price from $32 to $60.

There’s also products for mums, including a belly oil and butter, nipple balm, face oil and creams, which cost anywhere between $35 and $60.

While the plan was to focus the brand on baby skincare, the belly butters for mums are bestsellers, with one being snapped up every 15 minutes, according to the company.

Corina, has used the belly butter on herself throughout both her pregnancies, with the couple’s daughters now aged one and three, and still uses the belly oil as a whole body moisturiser.

The baby bath teas were inspired by Corina’s grandmother who was a herbalist in Romania. Picture: Supplied

Her kids also love the Calm Baby Bath Tea as part of their bed time routine, she said.

The 36-year-old added that her grandma used to make many different concoctions from the plants, including different types of teas, fermented vinegars, skin balms and creams.

“Our baby bath tea stems from a traditional bath tea she would create with chamomile tea straight from the fields. It seemed like there was nothing she couldn’t cure with the help of plants,” she said.

Luke added that ingredients like chamomile and lavender were kept inside organic muslin with oats which goes into the bath and releases the botanicals.

“The baby bathes in that as it locks in the moisture of the skin and it’s much better for a much younger baby to be bathing in something that doesn’t have harsh chemicals that can dry out their skin,” he said.

Next up, the couple have their eyes set on launching into the US.

“We have gone from starting in a little kitchen to a smaller warehouse and we are about to move into a warehouse five times the size of where we currently are,” Luke said.

“We have plans for us to continue growing within Australia. We haven’t looked at doing anything in the US or Asia yet, but we are already in 40 retailers in the States and are focusing on launching there within second half of this year.”